Pros and cons if Steelers vs. Titans Week 4 matchup gets postponed

The prospect of an early bye for the Pittsburgh Steelers isn’t all bad news.

While the Steelers were more than likely looking forward to their most challenging test of the season, it will probably have to wait. Pittsburgh will probably breathe with a sigh of relief as they could use the time to get healthy heading into the next couple weeks.

While on the surface the Pittsburgh Steelers are much more healthy than they were in 2019. However, it only takes another key player or two to throw a wrench in the works. The Steelers Week 3 matchup with the Texans left Pittsburgh with a few injuries. Possibly the biggest injury to the offense so far in 2020 saw Diontae Johnson leave week 3 early with a concussion.

While Chase Claypool leads the wide receiver group in yards per reception, that has been inflated by the 84 yard touchdown catch against Denver. That one play accounts for over half of his receiving yards, as he only has 6 catches on the season. Diontae Johnson otherwise leads the Steelers wide receivers in yards per catch with 10.6. He is also second on the team with catches at 14 and he was leading the team in that department until he left Week 4 early with the injury. Ray-Ray McCloud is showing promise as a kick returner and did not look bad filling in for Johnson on punt return duties in week 4. However, Johnson is clearly the better of the two in this area. The Steelers would be without their starter in effectively two positions coming into Week 4 otherwise.

Pittsburgh also lost Derek Watt to a hamstring injury, and his loss was a bit bigger than one would think. The difference in our ability to run without Watt vs with Watt in the line up is big. You saw it in Week 3 when he sprung James Conner on a 59 yard gain to close out the game. He is also a special teams standout as he forced the safety on a punt attempt in on Sunday.

Watt is likely to miss multiple weeks, but the few games we have to play without him the better. There are some other bumps and bruises but the main thing was losing these two, who are key member of the special teams units as well, on top of being on our backup right tackle already made the Week 4 match up with the Titans look less appealing.

It is also worth noting that looking beyond Week 4 the Steelers are playing against the Eagles before their first matchups with the Bengals and Browns. The Pittsburgh Steelers will want to be as healthy as possible before their back to back divisional games that they must win to stay in the running to win their division.